This invention relates to an ink ribbon cartridge for a typewriter or similar office machine and is of the type which has a housing provided with an exit opening and an entrance opening for the ribbon and is further equipped with a storage reel as well as a take-up reel on which the ribbon is wound after it has been drawn off the storage reel and has been pulled past the printing station of the machine. There is further provided a drive roller which rotates the take-up reel. When the cartridge is in place in the machine, the drive roller is torque-transmittingly coupled to a transport device forming part of the machine. Generally, the drive roller is a toothed or spiked member which peripherally engages the outermost turn of the used ribbon wound on the take-up reel. The drive roller and the used ribbon wound on the take-up reel are resiliently urged into peripheral contact with one another by spring force.
Current office machines are designed for receiving closed ink ribbon cartridges in which a portion of the ribbon extends externally of the cartridge housing between the storage reel and the take-up reel and is adapted to be received by ribbon guides of the machine. The ribbons contained in cartridges of this type are single-run (one-way) ribbons, also designated as carbon ribbons. After the single passage of the ribbon through the printing station the ribbon is used up so that a new cassette has to be inserted. It is well known that a cartridge often runs out of ribbon while a piece of work--such as a letter--is being typed. If, in such a case, no fresh ribbon cartridge is at hand, a significant time may lapse before a new cartridge is inserted for completing the interrupted work.